Polls indicating that British voters favor staying in the European Union boosted the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow leaping 247 points to 17,922. Nasdaq jumped 76 points to 4,877.
On the upside
Lpath (Nasdaq: LPTN) received a $1.45 million two-year grant from the Defense Medical Research and Development Program to study Lpathomab in treating neuropathic pain.
Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO) will acquire PayRock Energy for approximately $888 million.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will provide up to $180 million to support Cerus' (Nasdaq: CERS) clinical development program for pathogen reduction of red blood cell components.
On the downside
Investors locked in profits on GlobeImmune (Nasdaq: GBIM).
Profit taking continued to weigh down shares of ChromaDex (Nasdaq: CDXC).
A proposed settlement of $140 million has been preliminarily approved for a class action lawsuit against Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 surged 25 points to 2,096. Bitcoin tumbled $15 to $730.